


Faint Breaths, Faint Smudges

by Poches



Series: Mass Effect: Reunion Series [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-28
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-03-09 11:48:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3248549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poches/pseuds/Poches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your registered name is Tannor Nuara, but in reality you are Thane Krios. However, you are both the same dying man, the same failing lungs. No pseudonym can cover that fact up on the medical records.</p><p>------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/>Thane's Mass Effect 3 reunion with Shepard.<br/>Reminiscing ahoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faint Breaths, Faint Smudges

Your registered name is Tannor Nuara, but in reality you are Thane Krios. However, you are both the same dying man, the same failing lungs. No pseudonym can cover that fact up on the medical records.

You’ve spent your days in Huerta Memorial Hospital, idly passing the time with everyday exercise and quiet contemplation. You have to say that this surprisingly humble ending is a satisfying finale for you, much more fulfilling than you would have ever imagined.

Of course that doesn’t stop the one lingering thought on your mind. Some days you are curious concerning your finale. Will she be the one to come take you away? Will she return from the battlefield to kiss you to sleep, to leave black marks on your face and lead you into the sea? But these thoughts are washed away in waves of sweat as you continue to fight an invisible, nonexistent enemy. Though you have plenty of time to contemplate these thoughts, you decide it’s for the best to occupy yourself in other ways.  


You try not to miss her too much, but you honestly have too much time on your hands sometimes. You smile as you remember how she filled these hands with her own, black lips curling into a prim smile upon contact with your skin. Sometimes you believe she could kill with that smile. More often than not, she did. She probably still does. You smile at a memory that surfaces from the ocean of your mind.

_She clears the floor with surprising efficiency. Bodies drop as she tears them into shreds in a hail of bullets and biotics. She moves with fluid grace, descending threateningly upon her targets, like a bird of prey. Clad in armor, she is dangerous, terrifying, but strangely beautiful. Her eyes dance in amusement, black lips hinting at…something. She knows where I am, but she says nothing, tacitly taunting me. I hear her approaching the elevator. I quicken my pace in the vents._

You take a deep breath at the memory. Your first meeting. She was good at not letting on what she knew, but you knew. Later you would learn the meanings of all her smiles and come to love all of them, even the sad ones.

Even the last one she gave you before she was put away from public eye, away from your eyes. It sends pangs through your body everytime you think of it, but you still love it. Because it is hers.

_She breaks away from the kiss, and I hold her fast to me. “Siha, please.” I plead. I’m desperate for at least one more second of her presence. She whispers, voice husky and warm. “Goodbye, Thane.” I shiver. It is a pathetic declaration and I hold her tighter until she laughs. I brush a hand through her red, red hair, dark roots starting to come back. She painstakingly removes herself from my arms and resigns herself to the officers. I want to reach out to her, the irrational idea of snapping their necks and whisking her away entertaining itself in my desperation. But she turns around, and smiles one more time for me. Sunset eyes crease into a melancholy smile. Words quietly leave dark lips, slightly smudged from contact. “I’ll miss you.” The scent of her hair is still on my fingers, black smudges shared on my lips as I utter her name. “Shepard.”  
_

You sigh deeply again. You really have too much time on your hands. You consider taking a seat and resting, but you can’t bring yourself to. You simply return to your motions until a strong, familiar voice interrupts you. 

“I see you’re still in good shape.” She’s smirking, but her eyes give her away. She’s trying her best to hide her eagerness, to hold it back the way someone tries to hide a present behind their back.

She’s breathtaking as usual, looking no different from when she was taken away from you. Dyed crimson hair, proudly contrasting her dark eyebrows. Dusky eye-shadow blended with immaculate care, layered over crisp eyeliner, all to complement her warm, hazel eyes. And of course, the finishing touch was her black lipstick. The only difference you can see is that it has been harder for her to conceal the dark rings underneath her eyes.

You can barely get the words out, both from your surprise and delight, as well as your condition. “Siha, what are you doing here?” She tells you of the attack and her reason for being here. Your memory goes back to the biotic you spoke with. Kaidan Alenko. That was his name. You nod, retelling her of your talk with him. She grins and says she’s glad to see you two were getting along. You promise to look out for him and the smile widens in appreciation. “I am near the end of my life.” you explain. “It is a good time to be generous.” Her smile wavers at the reminder. You cough.

“I have only a few loves left.” you begin, only to be cut off with a chaste kiss on the lips. It is only a tiny detail, but you appreciate the feeling of her lipstick being smeared on yours. You’ve missed that. You’ve missed her. You chuckle roughly, making a quip. “Well. I see you want to make up for lost time.” Though it was meant as a joke, she confirms it as a true statement. You stand with her, gazing out the window that faces the highways of the Citadel. For a few moments, you are both silent.

You pass the time, talking about various things. She offers you a spot on the Normandy again, and you can hear how much she wants you in her voice. However, you must politely decline, for your sake and hers. She nods, resigning herself to this. She avoids asking you how much longer you have. She doesn’t want to know. What she does ask is if it hurts. _No more than these past six months without you,_ but your tongue stills this remark. You tell her the professional version.

Then you see that glint in her eye. The same look she gets when she’s preparing to end a man’s life with one well-aimed bullet, the same one you saw in her eyes when she asked you to come alive with her. Raw, predatory energy that sends a jolt through your entire body, resonating in your veins and resuscitating you. You take a breath as she hints at what she wants. And who are you to deny a dangerous, beautiful woman?

“I’d like that. You should understand that my cardiovascular system is not what it---mmm…” She steals away your breath in a series of kisses, so different in nature from the first one. She wraps her arms around you and you follow suit, pressing her to you. You rumble gently with pleasure. The act is desperate and rushed, and the kisses are stealing away more and more of your limited breath, but neither of you care. She truly is a dangerous woman, and her lips pull into a wicked grin that you’re all too familiar with as she pulls away slightly. “You were saying something?” You smile and nod.

“I’ve missed you, Shepard.”

**Author's Note:**

> For my sentinel Shepard made in Mass Effect 2, Ezra Shepard.


End file.
